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This family drama turned dystopia is a four star performance for Katrina Gaffney. Arriving at the Burton Taylor for the opening night of the second ever production of ‘In the Republic of Happiness’ I did not quite know what I was getting myself in to. Greeted by the familiar scene of a family settling down […]
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✮✮✮✮ It’s exactly what it says in the title. Josh Dolphin and Penny Cartwright have adapted (well, not so much “adapted” as transposed) David Foster Wallace’s postmodern collection of short stories for the stage, transforming the prose into a series of blistering monologues, and the result is rather electric. We open on the cast huddled […]
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✮✮✮ After Richard Parker and The Dumb Waiter last week, it is perhaps easy to make the case that the Burton-Taylor has had enough two-handers focused on male relationships in intimate settings for one term. The third such play on the trot, Potosi marks itself out from these efforts by focusing more on interesting characters […]
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I’m not a great fan of kids, I must admit – I much prefer dogs (I’ve been told this isn’t a normal human response.) So, I wasn’t quite sure how to approach a preview of Monkey Bars, a production of Chris Goode’s award-winning work which took a series of interviews with children aged between 7 […]
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✮✮✮ A small space, pounding music, flashing lights. Sound familiar? At the Burton Taylor the cast of John Godber’s Bouncers unapologetically conjures up a night out in a Northern town. From the ritual of getting ready, to the unsteady taxi ride home, snapshots of the night are punctuated by the condescending glare of the […]
Continue ReadingThe most interesting feature of this production of the famous play by Samuel Beckett is the importance given to the audience. Curious Incidents Productions has decided that the spectators are going to surround the stage or, if you like, the actors are going to act among the spectators. In any case, this promises to […]
Continue ReadingPterodactyls by Nicky Silver is a new project funded by the Oxford Revue and comes to the Burton Taylor Studio at 7:30pm Tuesday-Saturday in 8th Week. The show marks the first time in a long time that the Revue has funded an existing comedy show, and the Oxford Student caught up with Pterodactyls director Kieran […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮ Contemporary playwright Laura Wade stands accused of a facility for language – something any company aiming to put on a performance of one of her plays should monopolise. Without understanding the need to play on the nuances of dialogue that permeate her writing – without pivotal pauses, stutters, and crescendos – any performance would […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮ In the first 10 minutes, I became terribly worried that I would be unable to write a review. I knew Replay was the product of an intelligent, albeit wacky, mind, but it felt incomprehensible. Therein lies its fault and wonder. In the shortest and simplest terms, Replay is about a peculiar relationship between Freya, […]
Continue ReadingThe Hilary Revue Burton Taylor Studio 4th week ✮✮✮✮✮ Hahahahahahaha. I wish that could be my review. This is funny. Go. Perhaps you need a little more information before spending your fiver. Fine. For those of you for whom this opening line (or sheer emphasis by repetition: hahahahahahaha) isn’t illuminating enough, here goes. With Family […]
Continue Reading“It’s an intense hour-long romp” says Misha Pinnington, who plays the Düsseldorfian Ripper Peter Kurten in Normal. The show, written by the ‘90s playwright Anthony Neilson, will attempt to scandalise audiences at the BT in 3rd week through its depiction of Kurten’s relationship with his lawyer, Justus Wehner, during the serial killer’s 1930 trial. Director […]
Continue ReadingBetrayal is an oddly heavy-handed name for a play which gives so little away. Neither soapy nor moralising, it is however one of Harold Pinter’s more accessible plays – which isn’t saying much. If in essence Betrayal is a simple and age-old story – the tale of a cheating wife, her abusive husband, and sleazy […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮ I laughed and laughed and as I cycled home I was still laughing. Kvetch, on at the Burton Taylor Studio until Saturday, is hilarious. The word is of Yiddish origin and means to complain or whine (a lot); it can also be used as a noun. Steven Berkoff’s 1987 short play, set in Brooklyn, […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮ In 1629, no less a critic than Ben Jonson decried Pericles as “stale”. Despite the valiant attempts of cast and director, the first half of the play still seems long, dull and turgid. As Pericles travels from place to place, there are brief moments of quality, but the first episode of real drama (as […]
Continue Reading‘There’s a humanity in Endgame,’ director Will Felton tells me, ‘which is often overlooked.’ This is a bold claim to make – and if I hadn’t already seen what this production’s cast of four were capable of, I’d probably have scoffed. This Fools and Kings production of Endgame is every bit as unsettling as the best Beckett […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮✮ The Buttless Chaps are back: four performers, 18 sketches, and a touch of oddly hilarious German musical to finish. Given the success of their show Some Funny earlier this year, the company had a tough job in making their return as entertaining with More Funny, but judging by the audience’s warm reception they’ve managed […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮ With the prizes and prestige of the original show combined with gritty themes of human existence and value, it takes a brave group to take on the play 100. But it is safe to say that is production is not going to disappoint. The plot initially seems simple – you must choose a memory […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮ As Halloween approaches and the chill of winter starts creeping in, a play about witchcraft and torture seemed fitting as I made the perilous walk via Cornmarket St towards the Burton Taylor Studio. Except the play isn’t really about witchcraft at all, although that is what the titular character Maria (Evie Ioannidi) is accused […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮ The dimly lit, almost claustrophobic studio hosts a cluttered stage, boasting Lego blocks, hangings of vibrant, animated drawings, and a lonely wooden chair. A young girl sits in the middle, intently colouring and seemingly oblivious to the sudden surge of chattering, clamorous baboons which, for her, comprise the audience. She sits patiently, swaying to […]
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